Atypical outbreak of Q fever affecting low-risk residents of a remote rural town in New South Wales.

Atypical outbreak of Q fever affecting low-risk residents of a remote rural town in New South Wales. Commun Dis Intell Q Rep. 2017 Jun 30;41(2):E125-E133 Authors: Archer BN, Hallahan C, Stanley P, Seward K, Lesjak M, Hope K, Brown A Abstract We investigated an outbreak of Q fever in a remote rural town in New South Wales, Australia. Cases identified through active and passive case finding activities, and retrospective laboratory record review were interviewed using a standard questionnaire. Two sets of case-case analyses were completed to generate hypotheses regarding clinical, epidemiological and exposure risk factors associated with infection during the outbreak. Laboratory-confirmed outbreak cases (n=14) were compared with an excluded case group (n=16) and a group of historic Q fever cases from the region (n=106). In comparison with the historic case group, outbreak cases were significantly more likely to be female (43% vs. 18% males, P = 0.04) and identify as Aboriginal (29% vs. 7% non-Aboriginal, P = 0.03). Similarly, very few cases worked in high-risk occupations (21% vs. 84%, P < 0.01). Most outbreak cases (64%) reported no high-risk exposure activities in the month prior to onset. In comparison with the excluded case group, a significantly increased proportion of outbreak cases had contact with dogs (100% vs. 63%, P = 0.02) or sighted kangaroos on their residential property (100% vs. 60%, P = 0.02). High rates of tick expo...
Source: Communicable Diseases Intelligence Quarterly Report - Category: Infectious Diseases Tags: Commun Dis Intell Q Rep Source Type: research